Business a.m.
The House of Representative Public Accounts Committee, in a spirit of diplomacy and fairness, has provided a platform for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) to address their differences over the controversial non-remittance of N45 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The FRC had asserted that the SEC failed to acknowledge or respond to its report issued in 2022, which indicated that SEC had allegedly failed to remit approximately N45 billion of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund between 2007 and 2021.
In response to the allegations, Lamido Yuguda, the director general of SEC,refuted the claims of non-remittance, stating that the commission had already reconciled its operating surplus with the office of the accountant general of the federation.
“I think if the FRC had actually done a little more work, they would have seen from the OAGF all the efforts that we have made to reconcile the surplus figures from 2007 when FRSC came into being, “ the director general told the committee.
Presenting their case before the committee, the team from SEC stated that they possessed documented evidence of previous remittances, which they put forward as proof of their innocence in the alleged non-remittance scandal. In their defense, the SEC team maintained that they are ready and willing to provide any and all required documents to the committee, affirming their cooperation in the ongoing investigation.
Analysis of the SEC’s submissions to the committee showed that the organisation had indeed made all required payments, as the documentation submitted by SEC corroborated their claims of compliance.
Furthermore, the representative from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation affirmed this finding, revealing that regular reconciliation exercises had been carried out between the two parties,
“Fact reveals that the Lamido led Management has transformed the account of the Commission from deficit balance recorded over the years to operating a surplus as a result of the transformations and policies introduced into the capital market”, the report stated.
After the impassioned defense from both the SEC and the (FRC), the House of Representative Public Accounts Committee reached a consensus to adjourn the matter for a 21-day period. In this time, both parties were tasked with reconciling their differences, scrutinizing their records, and finding a common ground to resolve the contentious issue of the alleged non-remittance of N45 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
